Banker: 'Perfect storm’ for Arizona investment

The Canadian dollar’s rise against the U.S. dollar isn’t just peaking interest in Valley real estate but is boosting investment opportunities for Canadians in a variety of American industries.

Dollar parity lures Canadian home buyers

The Arizona business world has long had a steady flow of business with our neighbors to the north, experts say. They buy up commercial properties, invest in local start-up companies and establish Valley divisions of Canadian businesses.

The parity between the two dollars will turbocharge that already flourishing interaction in the coming months, said Glenn Williamson, a local investment banker and CEO of the Canada Arizona Business Council.

A combination of factors, in addition to current exchange rates, has created a kind of “perfect storm,” he said.

Direct flights between Canadian and Arizona cities have increased. The number of Canadian visitors has nearly doubled since 2002, jumping to more than 496,000 last year. Canada — a huge supplier of natural resources to the United States — has also enjoyed a recent surge in national wealth.

“The amount of money that is sitting in Canada now is more than I’ve ever seen there,” Williamson said.

Last year, Arizona and Canada exchanged $3.5 billion in bilateral trade and could do as much as $5 billion by 2008, he said.

Political activity has also increased between the two nations in recent months. In October, Gov. Janet Napolitano traveled to Canada, where she talked with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper about ways to boost trade. She also ceremonially opened the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Rick Kidder, president of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce, said he plans to make a trip to Canada in the coming months to talk with business leaders about opportunities in Scottsdale and across the state. With the increase in Canadian buying power, this is an especially good time to market tourism, Kidder said.

“This would be a wonderful opportunity to capture a larger share of that market,” he said.

There is also talk that the commercial real estate market will see an increase in investment from Canada and other countries, said Bob Buckley, senior vice president with commercial brokerage Grubb & Ellis.

The U.S. dollar “is weak against the euro. It’s weak against the yen,” Buckley said.

There has always been a core of Canadian investors active in Arizona, said Rudy Miller, CEO of financial services firm Miller Capital Corp. Now, they are more flexible and have become more aggressive, Miller said.

“They’ve been a bigger presence here than people have realized,” he said.